Monday, December 01, 2008

Dorkbusting

When I was growing up, Black Friday shopping wasn't anything that was done in my family. Two years ago, Tyler found a really good deal on an mp3 player that he wanted to get me for Christmas. So out we went. However, we didn't go out till about 2. And I have to tell you, by that time of day all (read: most) of the crazy people were gone. This year, perusing bfads.com, Tyler discovered a sale that required our presence as doorbusters - at Half-Price Books. (Man am I a dork ... :P) The sale? The first 100 people through the doors would receive a free tote bag and a $5 coupon. Of those 100, someone would win a $100 gift card to Half-Price. Now ... I was sold at the $5 coupon. There are plenty of books at Half-Price that I could get for $5. So that was a FREE book! And seeing as I'm a dork ... free books are a great draw for me. I might also add that this sale was falling at a rather fortuitous time for me, as I just recently finished the book that I was reading. Doors were to open at 7 am.

So, we got up at 6. We (Tyler, his mom, my mom, and myself) left around 6:30. We got to Half-Price about 10 minutes later and there was already quite the line. Guesstimating, we figured there were about 50 people there already. I must admit, I was surprised by this. I didn't figure that there would be that many people in line to doorbust at Half-Price Books. I'm glad that we arrived when we did though, because the grew behind us rather quickly. They opened the doors about 10 minutes early and began to hand out tote bags and coupons. I headed straight back to the religious fiction in hopes of finding another totally mindless fluff read. Tyler checked graphic novels first then went to sci-fi, business, and finally came back to where I was. My mom headed for the clearance section (shock) and immediately began filling her bag with several books for her classroom (shock again). And I believe that Tyler's mom headed to the current publications looking for a specific book for someone for Christmas. She found a few things. Tyler found a couple of books. Mom filled her bag. And I was having some difficulty. There as a series that I was kind of interested in, but didn't want to spend the money on books 2 and 3 in the series and was afraid to risk them not being there at a later date. So I just set everything aside and figured I could use my coupon during a later trip to the store. Tyler's mom was no where to be found at this point in time so, we headed over to the music section towards the front of the store to look for a cd he's been wanting. (Please note, that at this point in time, we've been at Half-Price Books for about 40 minutes and there are probably close to 200 people in the small store with us. And I'm thinking, "Seriously? This many people got up early for Half-Price Books?" Regardless of my thoughts, I'm glad that we listened to Tyler and headed out early to wait in line. And here comes why ...) Tyler and I are busy digging through cds when his mom comes up behind us and says, "Hey you two! Get whatever you want today - I won!" Seriously. She won the $100 gift card. How fun! So I went back and picked up my series (and a couple of other books). Tyler grabbed a few books he'd set down and a couple of dvds. Basically, we went nuts. And we still have my coupon and about $50 left on the gift card. Oh yeah! Do you have any idea how much money $50 is at Half-Price Books? I'd bet that we get another 10-15 books out of it. Oh yeah! That's what I'm talking about! And that's why I'm a dork ... God love my husband that he not only puts up with my bookworm-ness, but supports my habit. :)

So after a very successful hour and a pinch at Half-Price Books, we all headed out to breakfast at Panera. Mmmm ... Panera ... From there we hit Barnes and Noble (Yes. We did need to go to another book store.) and Dick's Sporting Goods before Tyler's mom headed for home. (She had like a 4 hour drive back to WV, and we didn't want to keep her too long.) The three of us proceeded to Kohl's. It's about 10:30 by now and while the store is still VERY full, it is also well stocked and staffed and we were only in line for 30 minutes or so. Some larger purchases were made at Kohl's and required a trip home to empty the car (and for food. It was getting close to lunch time by the time we got through the line.) So we had lunch and mom took a nap and we headed out again around 1.

This time, we went up to Tuttle Mall. Stops at Game Stop (both inside the mall and in the plaza across from the mall. Seriously, Buy 2 Get 1 FREE, that warrants stopping in to look.), Sears (had a coupon), New York and Company (coupon and Buy 1 Get 1 75% off), Macy's (coupon), Lane Bryant (Buy 1 Get 1 FREE, whole store, mix and match. Seriously.), Go! The Game Store, and Great American Cookie (mom needed a snack, so we all three split a brownie and pop).

Down to Grove City. Dinner at O'Charley's. Stops at Game Stop, Target, Best Buy, and somewhere else. But I can't remember where. Headed home around 10. So we left at 6 am, got home at 10 pm, and took 1 hour off for lunch at noon. Needless to say that after 15 hours of shopping, we were tired and our feet hurt. Throughout the day we (and I'm counting all 4 of us here) picked up:new 10 pc pots and pansBelgian waffle makerat least 25 books6 dvds2 pairs of new tennis shoesnew holiday decora few new topsa couple of pairs of pantsa few under thingsnew jewelry (including ring, pins, earrings, and bracelets)hillbilly golfnew belt for my skinny husband who keeps needing new belts :)... and I'm sure that I'm forgetting something ...

The craziest part of it all ... we went out again on Saturday ...

Never let it be said that we didn't contribute to righting the economy on Black Friday this year ...